Head rests are used widely as parts of seats for commercial airplane passengers. Some such rests are adjustable vertically so as to accommodate different torso lengths of various passengers. Others include peripheral portions forwardly adjustable at angles to a central portion. Each mechanically-adjustable portion, sometimes denoted an “ear” or a “wing,” may support both a side and the back of a passenger's head when forwardly adjusted.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,375,119 to Park, et al., discloses another type of adjustable head rest for use with passenger aircraft seats. Included as part of the head rest cushion of the Park patent is an internal inflatable bladder. Electrically-operated pumps and vents inflate and deflate the bladder under direction of a passenger.
Although head rest adjustability is valuable to aircraft passengers, particularly on long-haul flights, existing head rests do not meet all current passenger needs and desires. No commercially-available head rest is universally adjustable, for example, in three-dimensional space. Additionally, many existing head rests require too-frequent maintenance as a result of passenger use.